First of all, I am new to this site so forgive me for such long post. I hope this is the right location to post this. My name is Brandon and I live in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I am the proud owner of an 86’ 5.0 LX Convertible. I just moved to the area and this forum was recommended to me by my neighbor and fellow Fox Body owner.
Attached are a few pictures of my car. The color is Shadow Blue with white leather interior. The car has 70k original miles.
If you ask me, the car has a pretty unique back-story. I have owned the vehicle since 2012. I bought the vehicle in the country of Bahrain, a small island country in the Arabian Gulf off of the coast of Saudi Arabia and Iraq, which is where I was serving on Active Duty in the U.S. Navy at the time. When I purchased the vehicle, the seller had informed me that he recently had the car imported into the country from Japan, where it had apparently been garaged for about a decade or so. I’m assuming it was originally taken to Japan by another U.S. Service Member, given the number of bases located there. This story was validated with import paperwork as well as while redoing the interior a couple of years later, I found a good amount of Japanese currency that had worked its way underneath the original carpet.
When I left Bahrain in 2013, I had the car placed on a cargo ship to Baltimore, where I picked it up in when I got back. While redoing the interior of the car in 2014, I found the original build sheet to the car, intact, underneath the carpet. This led to the discovery that the seats had, at some point, been reupholstered in black, so I changed them back to the factory white. I took this opportunity to repaint every piece of plastic and vinyl inside the car, replace the carpet, reupholster the seats, replace the door panels, sun visors, as well as a bunch of the old weather-stripping.
Since finishing the interior in 2014, the car has only been driven for the occasional weekend cruise. That is until around October of 2017 when I sold my primary daily driver vehicle to help fund my wedding. At that point, I shared a vehicle with my wife as long as I could, but eventually, I had no choice but to use the car as a temporary daily driver.
Fast forward to yesterday, Wednesday, March 14, 2018. I am saddened and heartbroken to say that I was involved in an unavoidable collision while driving the vehicle on a busy highway. Luckily, I and everyone involved were completely uninjured but I cannot say the same for my Fox Body. A tractor-trailer changed lanes and cut off the vehicle in front of me, nearly crushing them between the trailer and a barrier wall. To avoid being crushed, the car in front of me slammed on their brakes, forcing me to do the same. Unfortunately, I could not change lanes due to traffic and could not stop as quickly as the car in front of me. The wheels locked up and I slid right into the rear end of the car in front of me. The damage seems relatively minor, but I am currently working with my insurance company who said the car will likely be a “total loss”. The visible damage is to the Front Bumper, Hood, and Driver’s-side Headlight. However, I was not able to open the hood to check for any damage to the radiator or other engine parts. Currently, the car is off the road and at a local body shop awaiting the appraisal and cost estimate from my insurance adjuster.
What I am wondering is this:
What is the groups taking on what it would require to keep this car on the road?
This car has a lot of sentimental value to me and I would like to do everything I can (within reason) to keep it on the road. The body shop has already informed me that finding parts is going to be extremely difficult. I figured as much with the car being 32 years old, but I want to make every attempt to utilize my network of fellow Fox Body enthusiasts to see what, if any, used parts are available to keep this Fox alive.
pre-collision photos...
after the collision...
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